There is then, no better person to be one of the first engineers to give the new big boy from the DiGiCo stable, the SD7, a thorough testing than Bracey, who is currently on the European festival circuit with Massive Attack.
“One of the things that’s been a revelation for me, doing mainly festivals on this run, is how good the desk sounds compared to other boards people are mixing on,” says Bracey. “It’s like, wow! A lot of other people have been impressed as well. Of course Massive Attack gives a great opportunity to create that sound, but I believe that it is the sound of the console they are complimenting.”
Bracey says it has been a great tour to hear what the desk can do - as each band on the same stage at a particular festival is using the same loudspeaker system - and it has elicited a fair amount of reaction from other engineers. “We’ve been going on after, and sometimes before, a lot of other consoles,” he says. “The mixes people are doing are all good, but the fundamental sound of the SD7 is better.”
“Today [at the Paleo Festival in Switzerland] I was line checking and I had Basil running across our five vocal mics on stage, talking into each one of them. The system tech - who had done a very good job with the Festival PA - commented that the low end of the mics sounded very good. I just tapped the desk. I’m not using fancy mics, he’s hearing the sound of the console.”
“A DiGiCo console wasn’t originally specified for this tour. I had to stick to my guns to get the desk I wanted and I don’t regret my decision one bit. The SD7 sounds better than a D5 and, from my experience, the D5 already sounds better than anything else!”
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